Comic Treadmill on Black Diamond #4: "This is the action issue I’ve been waiting for since Young first revealed his concept to the world and it did not disappoint with the lawless streets of the Black Diamond finally getting stained with blood in an ominous background of fiery reds and oranges.

"As with most AiT/Planet Lar productions, the fun the creators had exudes from the pages and it is hard for the reader not to mentally put him or her self behind the wheel and play daredevil driver making 'vroom vroom' '[squealing break sounds]' and 'kaboom' sound effects while flipping the bird to the gun-toting thugs. Might I recommend reading this in an environment where no one else can see or hear you?"

H also gets a massive amount of Good Karma by posting this to wind it all up: "And, since an entry about a Larry Young book should always include a Red Sox reference, I’m going to say that I'm not disheartened by being down 3-1 to the Indians (although I am still nauseous over Terry Francona’s Gradylike decision to bring in Gagne in Game 2) because the Sox are the kind of team that can climb out of a hole. And I sure hope they do because I have tickets to Game 2 of the World Series at Fenway and I want to use them dammit! Allow me to try and influence things by invoking the karmic power of the time my kids met Luis Tiant!"



+++++

It was pointed out to me yesterday that three of the four Sky Ape lads (Tim, Mike, and Phil) are heavy-duty Sox fans, and with Richard having just moved to Cambridge, he gets a geographic pass to get up to speed. Kurt Busiek, who's intro'd Space: 1959 and True Story Swear to God: This One Goes To Eleven, is also on record as a major Bosox guy. Those of you in comics who are impressed with Kurt's level-headedness on comic book message boards, with your "Busiek wins!" and whatnot, may be amused to see him take out the trash on MFY trolls during games on the Surviving Grady site on a regular basis. Everybody gets their fuse lit about something.

Mike Brennan, though, has to be the top AiT creator who shows his Fenway feelings the hardest, as the poor guy got hit by Cupid's arrow in a quite inconvenient manner: in a Camp-David-Peace-Accords-level amount of love and happiness, ol' Mike married A YANKEES FAN.

+++++

Click this link to hear Josh Beckett answer the question: "Were you bothered at all by the fact that they had a girl you used to date sing the national anthem?" I mean, we know the answer: he pitched an 11K, 7-1 eight innings. But click the link and let him tell you.

Ain't It Cool News on Black Diamond #4: "This is one of those comics that rarely follows a conservative way of telling a story. The method used in this issue has been done before, but creator/writer Larry Young utilizes the technique of telling two seemingly unrelated stories at the same time to its fullest potential. One of the stories follow a man's ramblings about this and that--ambition, hard work, the state of the country, morals, values, and all that--while the artwork tells a quite different tale: depicting a rapid and rampant car chase sequence with explosions, shotguns, explosions, amazing leaps from moving cars, explosions, the world’s strongest rope, and explosions. This book is ROAD WARRIOR with a skewed version of the world outside our window, where the government has built elevated roadways across America, where laws are outlawed and a fight for survival takes place on every mile. Recommended for gear-heads and those who like political allegories as well. A smart read with art by Jon Proctor that makes it not too shabby to look at either."

+++++

...and then after those kind words from JH Williams III a couple days back, it seems like other comics pros are digging the book. I mean, yes, these guys are friends of mine, but I was still very flattered they'd give The Black Diamond a shout-out in their respective interviews:

Rich Starkings: "People should be buying Larry Young's THE BLACK DIAMOND book..."

and

Adam Beechen: "I guess this is a place to plug my buddy Larry Young's book BLACK DIAMOND. I like everything that Larry writes; I just get a kick out of his style."

Thanks, guys!

A lot of this going on last night:

Make sure you give the Red Sox a kind wish today, because they're behind a game on the Indians. Here's young Walker, digging the game at Grandpa's house, and keeping it real with Big Papi against the Angels, a week or so ago:

When Rich Johnston emailed, I answered, "I can neither confirm nor deny." But I did think his mention of the cosmic comic balance being maintained was particularly apt. I also appreciated him linking over to J. H. Williams III's kind words about our books: "When I was up in SF for the gallery event party I acquired some AIT/PLANET LAR books. Some were gifts, so thank you to the creators who gave me their work to check out. I’ve just finished reading them and they are…

"FIRST MOON – by Jason McNamara and Tony Talbert — An interesting historical tale about early colonists to America but with a nice strange supernatural spooky twist that ties into a modern day family’s life. A really different concept based on familiar ideas making for a nicely executed story.

"CONTINUITY – by Jason McNamara and Tony Talbert — This one is my favorite of the 2 books given to me by these guys. A really unusual story about a girl who is a little bit lost in her life, going down a not so good path. She finds that her dreams can somehow alter her waking reality in very dire ways and has caused this dystopian reality she now lives in, So in trying not to make things worse she decides she must stay awake. The result is a compelling read with characters that easily immerse you into their lives. As much as I liked Tony Talbert’s work in First Moon I think I like this better. His work here really gels with the story greatly. Nicely detailed and damn determined to TELL a story with his art.

"WHITE DEATH — by Rob Morrison and Charlie Adlard — A well written character driven story about soldiers trying to cope with the situation they’ve been put in during a time of war. Adlard here uses a different style than what I’m accustomed to from him and it is very effective. However I think the printing is a little dark and sort of muddies up the details a bit in some places. Anyway, worth checking out.

"ROCK BOTTOM — by Joe Casey and Charlie Adlard — I have to say that this is my favorite of the bunch. I’m not quite sure why, it just fits my sensibilities the most I think. Another character driven tale about a man who has come down with this strange and incurable disease that is slowly turning him to stone. This is in fact a wonderful metaphor of the character’s time in his life. He can’t seem to get past the bad decisions he has made and now lives in a rut. So as he turns to stone he must come to terms with himself. It becomes a very emotional story that pulls you into it dramatically and fully convinces of these character’s believability. Charlie Adlard’s art here is absolutely perfect for the story and again he uses a different style than what he is known for. This time to much greater impact. Deciding to leave the blacks out of his inks here is wise move and allows the reader to really enjoy the qualities of his drawing more, making for the art to have a real beauty to it. Perfectly suiting the beauty in the writing. A very nice balance of art and story.

"These all represent the sort of comics we need to see more of. Great stuff overall. I recommend you check them out if you haven’t already."

Man, you can't beat a hearty atta-boy from such a talented artist, can you?

Me an' my sister an' good ol' Pudge Fisk, circa 1972:



This ol' Daily Update might be turnin' into a Sox blog, for a bit.